Japanese Olympic boxer robbed by crazy decision, gets overturned

[ktguen]

I'm not a boxing fan but this is absolutely insane! There is a video and a full article here:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blog...ix-claims.html

Boxing judges under fire amid "fix" claims



LONDON (Reuters) - Olympic judges and referees came under fire on Wednesday with one fighter accusing them of "a fix", another successfully appealing a loss and even boxing great Lennox Lewis questioning some of their calls.
Iran's Ali Mazaheri cried foul when the heavyweight was disqualified after being warned three times for persistent holding against Cuban Jose Larduet Gomez despite leading by two points going into the second round.
"It was a fix. I could have got a bronze easily if it hadn't been for that," an irate Mazaheri, who walked out of the ring before the decision was officially announced, told reporters through a translator.
"In my previous fights I had done really well. It was a set up."
The International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) responded to Mazaheri's allegations in an email to Reuters, saying: "The Iranian boxer received three warnings during his bout.
"According to Rule 12.2.1 of the AIBA Technical & Competition Rules, 'only three warnings may be given to the same boxer in one contest. The third warning brings automatic disqualification'."
Two bouts earlier, Japan's bantamweight Satoshi Shimizu, trailing by seven points going into the last round against Magomed Abdulhamidov, knocked the Azerbaijani down six times, the first of which he struggled to get up from.
The judges scored the round 10-10, handing Shimizu two extra points for a warning against Abdulhamidov, who propped himself up against the top rope as the referee raised his hand in victory.
The 25-year-old fighter was helped out of the ring by his trainer and Shimizu's team appealed the outcome.
The Japanese boxer's team leader Masamori Yamane accused the referee of trying to support Abdulhamidov by attempting to fix his headgear.
After deliberating for over an hour, AIBA said that under its rules, the referee should have given the Azerbaijani fighter "at least" three standing counts which would have resulted in the contest being stopped.
They, therefore, overturned the result, handing victory to Shimizu, who was staggered by the original decision hours earlier.

[Spurticus]

Officiating in most of the major events of the Olympics is a total Joke.
It has been that way for decades, and complaining from almost every
country year after year to the IOC has not made it any better. Some
sports are worse than other and boxing is one of the worst of all. Not just
scoring mistakes or confusion, but Glaring Biased towards one opponent over
the other continue to make the games hard to watch at times.

[Carolina_Harv]

I know its women's gymnastics but the vault that Mckayla Maroney did was said to be one of the best of all time in terms of perfection and they still found a way to take points off her score.....Not only that but how does a girl that goes completely off the mat and nearly falls get a better score then another gymnast who has less errors speaking of course of the Russian gymnasts on the vault. Judges are so crappy its not even funny!

[Gamecock Rob]

Sadly, Olympic judging is one of the most corrupt and unethical things on earth.

[GoCCUChants]

And that's why I like track and swimming. Line up, best man wins.

[Acockolypse Now]

There have been many allegations of IOC officials taking bribes for medals, so this doesn't really surprise me at all.

[ktguen]

Did everyone see the badminton players who were kicked out after trying to throw their games to get a better spot in the next round? It was crazy. I don't know how they thought they would get away with it. They looked like crap. They were OLYMPIANS looking like I would out there. I'm glad they made the right call there and DQed them

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blog...-possibilities

[Stonecoldcock]

Originally Posted by Acockolypse Now

There have been many allegations of IOC officials taking bribes for medals, so this doesn't really surprise me at all.

They investigated about bribes from this boxer's country not 8 months ago. Seems like they need to reopen the investigation.


"In December last year, an AIBA-appointed investigation committee dismissed allegations that Azerbaijan was promised two boxing gold medals the London Olympics in exchange for a $10-million loan to the sport's ruling body.
In a statement released at the time, the Special Investigation Committee (SIC) said the report aired on September 23 on the British broadcaster the BBC's Newsnight program was "groundless and unsupported by any credible evidence"."

[Acockolypse Now]

Doesn't look so groundless now...

[catdaddy66]

this is just criminal! why the hell are refs and judges performing like savants in these sports? the ref should have stopped after 3rd knockdown or standing 8 count per the rules. the judges should have scored the round as 10-8 or 10-7 reflecting the beatdown given. really, wtf??